Minolta Romania could take over Bulgarian business

Romanian branch of Minolta could take over the operations in Bulgaria, as an acknowledgement of its outstanding results over the ten years in business in Romania, according to the company’s sales manager for Eastern Europe, Roman Tihelka.

“The office in Bulgaria is rather underdeveloped, so that the manager for Romania cold take over the activities in this country,” Tihelka told Ziarul Financiar. He added that in the company’s strategy, the division for Eastern Europe ranked second after Germany last year.

Romania in its turn accounts for 10% of the total sales in the area, according to Tihelka. As for a possible investment to establish a productive centre in the region, Tihelka said the company was not considering it: “The decisions are made in Japan and Minolta is not planning to produce anything in Europe,” he said. “It may, however, choose to buy the businesses of other partners.”

According to Tihelka, the general strategy for the area will focus on the colour copiers and printers market. Tihelka, the former manager of Minolta Romania in early nineties deemed both the market trend and the development of the Romanian business environment as positive.

“I can recall that things were worse than they are now back in 1994,” he said. “Things have changed a lot now, especially since new generations of managers are out on the market.”